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WEEK FROM MON 13 TO MON 20 AUGUST 2001
MONDAY 13 AUGUST 2001
Action urged on Thai piracy
Open access development threat
Look Comms earns reprieve
NMT wins Paramount account
CNN/ABC in tie-up
GM still in talks with EchoStar
BBC in £300m digital plan
ITV gets ITV1
Action
urged on Thai piracy
Regional trade group the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of
Asia (CASBAA) has expressed concern about intellectual property rights
(IPR) protection in Thailand, highlighting the 150,000 pay TV homes that
don't actually pay.
Regulators from the Public Relations Department of the Prime Minister's
Office (PRD) and the Mass Communications Organisation of Thailand (MCOT)
both met CASBAA officials after a piracy summit in Bangkok earlier this
month. They were told that government bodies had to take a more proactive
stand against piracy.
"We believe there may be as many as 150,000 pay-TV households in Thailand
that are not paying the rights owners for the channels they are viewing.
Of course, this also damages the viability of the legitimate operators,"
said Simon Twiston Davies, the Executive Director of CASBAA."
Anti-piracy measures could be as simple as adding a clause to annual licensing
conditions insisting that local cable operators provide proof that they
hold legally binding contracts to distribute individual channels. If a
cable operator were unable to demonstrate a contractual relationship with
rights owners, it would not have its license renewed.
"We also see pay-TV piracy as undermining efforts to increase both local
and international investment in the Thai broadcasting industry as well
as damaging the general economic climate and good name of Thailand. Thus
we believe there is an urgent need for action on intellectual property
theft," he added.
Asia remains a hotbed of intellectual piracy for all mediums; lost revenue
from pay TV channels, in conjunction with underreporting of subscriber
numbers remains one of largest barriers to pay TV making a profit in the
region. In recent months pay-TV piracy has been forced up the CASBAA agenda
as the problem has escalated in Hong Kong, the Philippines, Taiwan and
Thailand.
The anti-piracy roundtable attracted representatives from AOL Time Warner,
Star Group, Discovery Channel, Turner Broadcasting, Hong Kong Cable, UBC,
Astro, Irdeto Access, NDS and the Motion Picture Association.
Open access development threat
Australia's largest pay TV provider, Foxtel, believes that a court decision to allow rivals to access its network will threaten the development of digital services in the market.
Foxtel had appealed a 1999 demand by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) that was later upheld in court, that rivals could use its broadband cable network. However, Foxtel were not permitted leave to appeal against a 2000 judgment that upheld the ACCC call.
Foxtel was swift to condemn the judgement with CEO Jim Bloomfield calling it a major setback for the development of digital TV in Australia. Bloomfield suggested that it would affect plans by Foxtel's partners, Telstra (50 per cent) and News Corp and PBL with 25 per cent each, to spend up to $500 million to digitise the network.
Telstra has already put back plans to digitise the network as it awaits to hear what body will be charged with regulating what outsiders will have to pay to access it. Telstra is 51 per cent owned by the Australian government.
"I cannot see how Foxtel's shareholders could consider investing hundreds of millions of dollars only to be forced to provide access on uncommercial terms. Foxtel has never sought to block access, however we are not a public service and we cannot be expected to subsidise content distributors," said Bloomfield.
The main victor, other than the ACCC, will be Kerry Stokes, Chairman of Channel Seven, whose pay TV channel C7 has been rebuffed by Foxtel during attempts to add it to Foxtel's line up. Mike Boulos, chairman of ethnic channel rebroadcaster TARBS is also keen to access the Telstra-built network.
Look Comms earns reprieve
Embattled wireless cable and Internet provider Look Communications has been granted a respite until August 25, in its attempt to refinance its operations. Look was facing C$98.3 million in banks loans due at the beginning of the month and it was unsure whether or not minority stake-holder Bell Canada Enterprises would guarantee the majority of the debt.
After a week of tense negotiations Bell agreed to guarantee the debt until the end of the month, giving look roughly two weeks to find additional financing and refocus its business plan. Look has roughly 300,000 subscribers, a third of which are wireless cable subs with the remaining being high-speed and dialup Internet subs.
Bell Canada Enterprises wants to exit its position as minority owner in Look because of a conflict of interest. Bell operates and owns its own Internet service as well as being the owner of Bell ExpressVu, a DTH operation with 850,000 subs.
NMT wins Paramount account
In the US Viacom's Paramount station group has reportedly assigned MMT, a Cox Enterprises rep firm, to handle national sales for Paramount's 10 major-market US TV stations.
The agreement takes effect from today (August 13) and the value, not disclosed, was described by MMT President Jack Oken as "significant."
The Paramount stations include UPN affiliates in Atlanta (WUPA), Seattle (KSTW), and Houston (KTXH).
CNN/ABC in tie-up
AOL Time Warner's CNN and Walt Disney's ABC are in exploratory talks in the US, discussing how to share resources and talent.
Cable news network CNN has held talks with various broadcast networks over the past two decades. CNN says it would enable a broadcaster to save money by sharing resources, such as news bureaux, footage and equipment - and such savings are now likely to be sought by broadcasters suffering an advertising slump.
Brand dominance and control of content are among the key issues to be resolved in any 'partnership'.
GM talks with EchoStar continue
General Motors is still in talks with EchoStar, the US satellite TV group that wants to buy the carmaker's Hughes Electronics subsidiary.
GM contacted EchoStar late last week to discuss details of the satellite TV group's proposed $29 billion offer for Hughes, which controls EchoStar's larger rival, DirecTV. GM is now still in the final stages of negotiations with Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation about merging DirecTV with the media mogul's global satellite assets.
The talks with EchoStar are the latest twist in the long-running battle over the future of DirecTV, which started last year when GM first indicated it was looking for a buyer for the business. For the past few months, GM has been negotiating the details of the deal with News Corp - much to the frustration of the media group's executives.
The discussions could further extend the uncertainty about the future of DirecTV, which has performed poorly over the past year and has lost market share to EchoStar.
A deal with EchoStar would raise substantial antitrust issues as it would effectively create one satellite TV operator in the US. While EchoStar CEO Charlie Ergen believes these hurdles could be overcome, observers believe GM's board is unlikely to recommend an offer that could be blocked after a long investigation.
BBC in £300 m digital plans
UK pubcaster the BBC is planning to launch two new digital channels, BBC3 and BBC4, but the decision provoked an angry reaction by rival channel operators who claim their own offerings will be diluted if the BBC is given the go-ahead for its £300 million launch.
The BBC was required to prove its new offerings will not overlap with existing channels covering the areas they are planned to cater for - including the hotly contested area of children's programming which BBC3 will cover, if approved. The companies say the BBC failed to provide satisfactory answers on this issue when quizzed by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and are now lobbying culture secretary Tessa Jowell in a bid to block their launch.
A joint venture between Rupert Murdoch's Sky empire and US company Viacom, Nickelodeon UK, has claimed it will be hit by the BBC's plan. But many of the concerns raised are for companies smaller than the likes of Nickelodeon or US giant Disney who is also complaining about the proposed launch.
The government has extended a review period to hear both sides' arguments.
ITV gets ITV1
The UK's ITV network today (August 13) officially changed its name to ITV1 and launched its dedicated sports channel ITV Sport.
The network's Chief Executive Stuart Prebble said, "The ITV brand already stands for unmissable television that connects the majority of people in this country. With the continued growth of multi-channel television, the time is right for the ITV brand to develop so that the full range of services we offer can be promoted under a consistent identity."
TUESDAY 14 AUGUST 2001
Open
TV validates iTV
AT&T in talks with Microsoft and Disney
FCC
reports 63% leap in Broadband
Allied
Data Technologies open the Turkey
ChannelD
selects Irdeto
Priew
plans expansion
AT&T
and
Liberty's final split
Weather
Channel on GE
Sonera
gets rid of Broadband Mobile
Gilat
Satellite reports 2Q loss
NewsCorp
earnings decline?
Optibase's
CEO's resign
Open
TV validates iTV
Mickey Kalifa, UK MD of OpenTV described to advanced-television.com how
its technology has been used in one of the biggest mass market interactive
TV events, with some 4.5 million UK tennis and golf fans using the service
in a BSkyB/BBC tie up.
"Sky's 5.5 million viewers with digital set-top boxes has created a critical
mass in the UK with access to digital TV. As a broadcaster, the BBC wants
to access that market and play a major role in interactive, hence it was
happy to cooperate with Sky," adds Kalifa.
Following on from the interactive success of Big Brother on Channel 4,
the BBC was able to respond with its own key content, the Wimbledon tennis
championships and the British Open golf Tournament. A million digital
satellite viewers accessed the BBC's Wimbledon interactive service on
the very first day of the Championships. An average of 0.9 million viewers
used the service every day during this event resulting in a cumulative
audience of 4.2 million viewers.
Coverage of the British Open Golf tournament was a similar success with
around 50 per cent of the BSkyB audience accessing interactive services.
A total of 1.2 million individual viewers accessed interactive services
during the four day event, with an audience of around half a million each
day. Viewer were able to choose from a selection of five video streams
at Wimbledon, and both the golf and tennis also offered statistics and
player information.
Scott Gronmark, Head of Interactive TV, BBC New Media said, "The reaction
has been nothing short of sensational. We look forward to rolling out
further interactive services in the near future."
Kalifa adds, "The reaction shows that there is a huge audience that understands
the technology and wants to watch interactive TV. If it is relatively
easy to use, interactive TV gets significant acceptance, and these figures
are a signal to the industry - to broadcasters and developers - that there
is a market there. Maybe two months earlier we might have predicted half
those numbers, but the BBC did a grat marketing job promoting the service
and by the time it launched we were not surprised at the excellent response.
Open TV provided the BBC with the technology and tools to develop interactivity
for the Sky platform - and having built up that core competence, the pubcaster
is planning several follow-up interactive services, "Some of which will
be public very soon."
Kalifa emphasises that it is not just OpenTV's existing deployment on
Sky that won it this key role. "The broadcasters can go to our competitors
on Telewest, NTL, etc and use their technology, but there are limitations.
We've been around in this game for a number of years and broadcasters
understand our applications, which puts us ahead. For the customer, this
means a better look and feel to the applications which are simple to understand
and use."
Open's recent purchase of Static, with its flagship PlayJam, also signalled
that the company is keen to extend its role up the value chain, to become
a more broad-based media company, extending from middleware to the creation
of content and even TV channels. Kalifa comments, "We are talking to several
broadcasters to evolve their existing content into new content, in a few
instances developing interactive TV for third parties, or in joint venture
- or in some cases as stand-alone channels. The interactive element is
broadening the definition of TV. We are investing in new technologies
and looking at alternative platforms, but a common theme is to pursue
ventures that are commercially viable. We see ourselves as becoming profitable
by Q4 2001, therefore if a venture is commercially viable, its something
we'll be interested in."
AT&T in talks with Microsoft and Disney
Giant US telco AT&T held meetings on Friday (August 10) with officials of Microsoft and Walt Disney, to find potential partners for its cable-TV business.
AT&T
Chief Executive C Michael Armstrong travelled to Redmond, Washington,
to discuss Microsoft's interest in AT&T Broadband, and met with executives
at Walt Disney in Los Angeles about possibly investing in or combining
some assets with AT&T Broadband.
Armstrong and other AT&T officials are reported to be actively talking
with companies across the country, believed to be an attempt to spark
a bidding war among the country's major media players for its nearly 14
million cable TV subscribers.
The company has several options. Finding investors for a sponsored spin-off
of AT&T Broadband, merging its cable business with the cable unit of AOL
Time Warner Inc, striking a deal with another firm, such as Cox Communications
Inc, or proceeding with its original plans for a tracking stock.
According to some sources AT&T has discussed a 'sponsored spin' of AT&T
Broadband with Disney. In that scenario, an investor would give AT&T cash
in exchange for equity in AT&T Broadband, which would eventually be spun
off from AT&T. Another option is reported to involve Disney combining
some of its cable networks with AT&T's cable systems and proceeding with
a public offering of its broadband business.
FCC reports 63% leap in Broadband
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reported on Monday (August 13), that as of the end of last year, there are now 7.1 million high-speed Internet access connections, a 63 per cent jump from the middle of 2000.
The commission also released a notice of inquiry to conduct another in a series of studies on whether broadband access is being rolled out to Americans in a timely fashion, according to the dictates of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
The commission said that growth for the entire year was 158 percent. 5.2 million of the 7.1 million lines were for residential and small-business subscriptions.
Other statistics show that there was a 108 percent increase in DSL lines during the second half of 2000, with a total of 2 million lines. The full-year growth rate, the FCC said, was 435 percent. Cable-based broadband services rose 57 per cent during the second half of 2000 to a total of 3.6 million. The full-year growth rate was 153 percent. High-speed satellite and wireless services usage rates rose from 50,000 in December 1999 to 112,000 in December 2000.
Allied Data opens in Turkey
Allied Data
Technologies BV, operating under the name Allied Data Technologies Turkey,
has opened an office in Istanbul, run by Berry Degens, Country Manager,
and Esra Abd lkadir, Sales & Marketing Manager.
Allied Data Technologies considers Turkish market as fast growing due
to Turk Telekom investments in ADSL and ISDN networks. Turkey has not
yet received EU status therefore it is necessary to have approvals for
all imported products. Allied Data Technologies' ADSL, ISDN and PSTN products
have already been tested and approved by Turk Telekom. 'In a short time'
they will be introduced in Turkish market.
Focus is on Allied Data Technologiesi CopperJet series, a series of ADSL
solutions. The CopperJets are compatible with the Alcatel DSLAM, which
is also used as backbone for the Turk Telecom ADSL network.
ChannelD
selects Irdeto
ChannelD, the first private German language broadcaster, has selected
Irdeto Access, content protection and management, to support the world-wide
roll out of its pay-services. ChannelD TV will use Irdeto Access' M-Crypt
DVB system and will be launched on 1st September 2001.
ChannelD TV, the general entertainment Pay-TV service and the associated
free-to-air radio station, ChannelD Radio, will target German-speaking
audiences outside Europe. The channel will first be launched in North
America, Latin America and the Caribbean. ChannelD will provide films,
sport, news, general entertainment, drama, soaps, music, as well as national
and regional information from Germany.
Irdeto Access, a subsidiary of MIH Limited the international subscriber
platform and software solutions group, specialises in designing, developing
and marketing end-to-end solutions to protect and manage content from
unauthorised access in both the television broadcast and Internet environments.
Priew plans expansion
Priew Co, the publisher of Priew women's magazine, plans to diversify into other media, especially radio and television, as a programme producer.
Priew now controls more than 50 per cent of Click Radio Co, a radio production firm with three stations in Bangkok: FM 102.5, 103.5 and 104.5. It was established last year with registered capital of five million baht (£68,000).
President Chayen Kamnuan, also holds a personal stake in Click Television Co, and hopes that this connection will help Priew make inroads into the TV business.
The magazine's registered capital was increased to 25 million baht from one million baht initially, while the number of staff increased to almost 90 from 20. Chayen declined to reveal the magazine's circulation.
AT&T
and Liberty's final split
US telco AT&T has completed its split with Liberty Media, which formerly
traded as an AT&T tracking stock under the now discontinued 'LMGA' ticker.
The separation will enable Liberty to raise capital or a partner with
other companies and also eliminates regulatory problems and conflicts
of interest between AT&T and Liberty.
Liberty Media has shown interests in an array of media, cable and telecommunications
firms, including its wholly-owned cable television unit Liberty Media
Group, plus AOL Time Warner, Telewest, Motorola and Sprint PCS.
Weather Channel on GE
GE Americom announced that The Weather Channel in the US has signed a 'multi-year, multi-transponder' lease for satellite capacity of the future GE 10 and GE 11 satellites.
The all-C-band satellites will go into operation beginning in 2004 at 135 deg W and 131 deg W each with 24 transponders. The Weather Channel, based in Atlanta, USA, is a unit of Landmark Communications.
Sonera
gets rid of Broadband Mobile
Finland-based telco Sonera has announced the immediate liquidation of
its Norwegian subsidiary, Broadband Mobile ASA.
Sonera Senior Vice President Aimo Olkkonen, who heads up Sonera's international
mobile business holdings and their development, said the relatively small
size of the Norwegian mobile market played a part in the company's decision.
"Our decision to apply for a 3G licence in Norway was based on our aim
of gaining a 3G licence in Finland, Norway and Sweden. However, we did
not receive a licence in Sweden, so the scaling and synergy benefits that
we expected to achieve with geographically adjoining mobile communications
markets did not materialise."
According to Olkkonen, when Enitel decided to pull out of the 3G venture,
no buyer came forward to purchase its shares. At that point, Sonera had
to either acquire the rest of the subsidiary or liquidate it.
"Sonera's strategic choice has been not to run an operator business outside
Finland as a majority shareholder," Olkkonen said. "Thus the only option,
in accordance with our strategy, was to immediately take measures to place
the company into liquidation."
Sonera also said it will post a loss of approximately E14 million in the
third quarter due to the discontinuation of Broadband Mobile's business
operations, although it will not incur any future capital or operating
expenses related to the venture.
Gilat
Satellite reports 2Q loss
Israeli satellite firm Gilat Satellite Networks reported a second-quarter
net loss that met the low end of its revised expectations, but said revenues
missed its estimate.
Gilat, which makes satellite systems, reported a net loss for the period
was $14.7 million, or 63 cents a share, compared with a profit of $9.1
million, or 38 cents a diluted share a year-ago.
The company warned last month that it expected to post a loss of 42 cents
to 63 cents a share, including charges of $15 million to $18 million.
It blamed impaired investments and losses in associated companies.
News Corp earnings decline?
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp Ltd could report fourth quarter earnings per share down more than 30 per cent from a year ago, analysts announced, trimming their full year operating income forecasts to $1.65 to $1.70.
Some analysts say soft advertising could knock around 25 per cent from quarterly television division earnings for News Corp, which remains entangled in negotiations to take control of General Motors Corp's Hughes Electronics Corp.
Optibase's CEO resigns
Optibase, which provides products that aid delivery of digital video images over broadband networks, headquartered in Israel and operating through a wholly owned subsidiary in San Jose, California, USA, announced yesterday (August 13) that Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Ran Eisenberg has given his resignation.
Eisenberg, who has been CEO since June 1994, will remain in his dual roles as CEO and Chairman until a new CEO was appointed.
WEDNESDAY 15 AUGUST 2001
Schneider to quit UPC
New MD for Telenor's interactive Zonavi
Hard times for Danish cable operators
Hong Kong plans Asian 'media conglomerate'
New Sales Director at EuroNews
Situation worsens at Videotron
Gemstar reports earning ahead
Video Networks gets the rights to EPL
Gilat to supply Philippine
TW extends agreement with CSG
Kirch against BBC and ITV
BT to break up with Concert
Schneider to quit UPC chair, losses down
Europe's largest private cableco, Holland-based United Pan-Europe Communications NV, announced yesterday that its Chairman and Chief Executive, Mark Schneider, is to quit after five years in Europe and return to the US.
Despite spearheading European cable consolidation, and the concept of the 'triple play' of video, voice and data, it appears that Schneider fell victim to market concerns about the mounting debt (some E 7 billion) accumulated to build a digital infrastructure - and the resultant plunge in share prices from highs over E80 to lows in the junk bond range.
Schneider is to remain as CEO until a replacement is identified, after which Schneider will be nominated to the UPC Supervisory Board. In the interim, the Supervisory Board will establish a delegated Special committee of board members Mike Fries, Ellen Spangler and John Dick, with Gene Schneider, CEO of major stockholder UnitedGlobalCom Inc acting as a special advisor to the committee.
In the company's Q2 results which were announced simultanteously, Ebitda losses were down from E78 million in Q2 2000 to E54 million in Q2 2001, while revenues for the quarter were up 21 per cent to reach E357 million. Adjusted Ebitda for the year is put at minus E200million based on revenues of E1.4 to E1.5 billion and capital expenditure of E1 billion.
The number of subscribers - or 'revenue generating units' is up 20 per cent to 8,570,000, (7,172,000 basic cable and 1,397,000 New services) with total homes passed exceeding 10,825,000.
A key achievement is that the average revenue per subscriber is now E12.6 per month - exceeding the E12 target ahead of the scheduled date of end of this year.
Schneider comments, "This year we have remained focussed on improving return on capital by increasing revenues - in particular ARPU (average revenue per unit) and further rationalising costs. New services will raise average ARPU over E17, with telephony providing opportunities to raise this significantly further.
Although the company's debt is E8 billion including exchangeable loans, it also has E1.1 billion in cash in hand and E1.3 billion undrawn bank lines. The company forecasts that it will be Ebitda positive in 2002 and free cashflow positive in the second half of 2002.
New MD for Telenor's interactive Zonavi
Zonavi, the interactive affiliate of aggressively expanding Norwegian telecom giant Telenor, is facing a shift of top level management. Zonavi's first MD, Espen Ashiem, had decided to return as a partner in Norwegian eScienza AS; now Johan Dolven, 37, has been recruited to take Zonavi into the future.
Dolven has been Regional Director for Northern Europe at Kelkoo, described as the biggest e-commerce portal in Europe. Earlier he worked in executive positions in various advertising agencies and major local corporations.
Zonavi is a wholly-owned affiliate of Telenor's Broadband services division, which recently took full control of Canal Digital, one of Scandinavia's two major satellite platforms, by buying out former 50/50 partner Canal+. Zonavi was launched late last year with the target of becoming the leading Nordic interactive player, describing its prime vision as: 'to create services making our customers get a more personal experience out of their TV sets.'
Zonavi today has over 40 people on its payroll.
Hard
times for Danish cable operators
The Danish cable business is facing difficult times. despite increasing
turnover figures the leading cable operators are all bleeding red ink.
New figures show that the leading Danish cable operator, TDC (formerly
TeleDanmark) Kabel TV ended up showing a DK426 million (£30 million) pre-tax
deficit for 2000. Also Denmark's second biggest cable operator, Stofa
(controlled by Sweden's Telia) reports a major deficit, though not as
high as that of TDC.
Niels Breining, MD of TDC Kabel TV, points at several reasons for the
disappointing results, which are despite an increase of 30 per cent in
net turnover figures. Factors include costly data registrations and major
investments in broadband expansions as two of the main explanations for
the poor performance of his organisation. Major marketing campaigns to
recruit new subscribers and negotiations with the parent company, TDC,
about reductions in transmission fees will, according to Breining, hopefully
lead to TDC Kabel TV to return to the black in the near future.
Ole Simonsen, MD of Telia Stofa, has a slightly more optimistic view of
the situation. "Our company's early investments in Internet broadband
services will soon start to show positive reactions in our financial records."
In Denmark Telia has invested heavily in recruiting new Internet broadband
clients via Stofa's networks, while in Telia's home market of Sweden most
efforts, so far, have been focused on using the company's old copper wire
networks, upgraded to ADSL to offer broadband solutions.
The decision last spring to incorporate Telia's major cable TV operation,
Com.hem, more closely into the corporate structure, instead of selling
it, is seen as giving Telia an upper hand, as digitisation of Com.hem's
market leading 1.3 million household national network, with its 65 per
cent market share, was initiated some four years ago.
Hong
Kong plans Asian 'media conglomerate'
A newly-formed Hong Kong-based movie and TV production entity says it
plans to create a pan-Asian 'media conglomerate.'
Celestial Pictures is part of the Usaga Tegas Group owned by Ananda Krishnan,
the Malaysian tycoon behind the country's satellite pay TV platform Astro.
Krishnan paid $77 million in March 2000 to buy the Shaw Brother library
of movies, that includes a $15 million cost of digitally remastering the
760 Chinese-language titles in the collection created by the Hong Kong-based
movie makers.
Celestial Pictures will be run by William Pfeiffer who was named Chief
Executive officer. Speaking at the launch, he said that Celestial will
use the Shaw Brothers collection as the basis for an entertainment services,
including movie channels, initially aimed at China, but with plans to
expand into other Asian markets in local languages. Pfeiffer also said
that Celestial will also produce up to 10 new movies each year and that
there are also plans to create TV content. Pfeiffer was Managing Director,
Asia, of Sony Pictures' Columbia TriStar International Television.
By focusing on creating content for Asian entertainment platforms across
different media and addressing the relative dearth of quality product,
Celestial appears to be actively distancing itself from the region's technology
providers who have suffered in the meltdown of their values in this year's
tech-wreck.
New
Sales Director at EuroNews
Peter Clothier joined the EuroNews in-house sales team in July as UK Sales
Director, based in London. Peter will be responsible for ad sales in the
UK, the Netherlands and in Scandinavia, and will report to EuroNews' Sales
and Marketing Director, Olivier de Montchenu, based in Paris.
Situation
worsens at Videotron
Suppliers and contractors of Videotron Telecom, the telecom arm of Videotron
Ltee, Canada's third largest MSO, are lining up in court to sue for unpaid
bills, claiming that since being purchased by Quebcor, delay after delay
has taken place when it comes to paying for goods and services.
Quebecor has said that it is simply attempting to clean up a mess it inherited
when it purchased the cableco last year. Others insist it is the result
of the massive debt Quebecor took on when it purchased the company. Quebecor
has put Videotron Ltee on the auction block but so far no one has nibbled.
Suits for wrongful dismissal reaching roughly C$7 million have already
been filed by workers and executives who claim they were unjustly fired
to avoid paying severance packages.
Gemstar
reports earning ahead
Gemstar TV Guide, a TV Guide magazine and an electronic programming directory,
which reaches 35 million viewers daily in the US, on Monday (August 13)
reported earnings ahead of Wall Street targets on the strength of its
portfolio of technology licences.
Its ebitda was at $108 million, or 24 cents per share, compared to Wall
Street estimates of 23 cents per share.
Henry Yuen, Gemstar Chief Executive, has built a large portfolio of technology
licences and patents, which include the technology underneath the company's
interactive programming guide. The licensing business posted a 36 per
cent rise in revenue to $80.2 million, primarily due to rising revenue
from the programming guide.
Video
Networks gets the rights to EPL
Video Networks, a UK provider of broadband interactive TV, has acquired
the exclusive video-on-demand rights to English Premier League football
for the next three years.
The group will add the premium service to its HomeChoice package available
to a potential 2.4 million homes in its London franchise. Access to the
106 games and a nine-year archive of Premiership footage will cost £6
($8.50) a month, bringing the maximum potential revenue per subscriber
to £24.
Simon Hochhauser, Chief Executive said, "It's just the sort of deal that
can make broadband work in volume. Sport has to be a key element. It has
all the major goals going back nine years. It was important that we had
those historic moments as part of the deal."
VideoNet is expecting to gain access to 8 million homes by the end of
next year and 75 per cent of the UK by 2003, as BT upgrades its network.
VideoNet currently pays BT £60 a month per line on top of a £625 connection
fee, meaning the costs of acquiring and keeping subscribers is high.
Gilat
to supply Philippine
Israeli-based Gilat Satellite Networks will supply its SkyBlaster VSATs
to Philippine firms Philippine Multimedia Systems and AZ Communication
Networks for a combined DBS/Internet delivery service.
Using Gilat's SkyBlaster VSAT, with its 360 satellite modem, PMSI and
AzComm plan to start a bundled, single-dish service offering both DBS
and Internet access for the Philippine market.
The companies plan to market the service to small-to-medium size business
and to the SOHO (small office/home office) market in the Philippines.
The service will support multiple PCs in business environments.
Gilat will also provide about 3,500 Skystar Advantage VSATs to Hebei Sky
Data Networks and Communications Co Ltd in China. Installation of the
network has already begun and is expected to be completed by the second
quarter of next year, Gilat said.
TW
extends agreement with CSG
Time Warner Cable of New York City has extended its customer-care and
billing-services agreement with CSG Systems International, which will
continue to provide products and services enabling the operator to deliver
enhanced customer service.
The operator will also licence 'CSG Vantage,' which allows analysis of
marketing data to monitor the behavior of the customer, and computer-based
training modules. In addition, Time Warner will utilise CSG's 'Direct
Solutions' print and mail services.
Kirch
against BBC and ITV
Leo Kirch, the German television magnate, who owns the TV rights to the
2002 World Cup finals, sent a letter to the UK Office of Fair Trading
complaining about the BBC and ITV acting as a cartel in negotiations for
screening the competition.
The OFT confirmed that it would examine whether the joint negotiations
breached either the Fair Trading Act or more particularly the Competition
Act, which came into force on March 1, 2000. If the OFT were to uphold
the complaint by Leo Kirch, both terrestrial channels could be fined up
to 10 per cent of their annual turnover.
The two British channels, which have shared the quadrennial tournament
ever since 1966, have refused to negotiate separately and talks became
deadlocked in March.
Under the Broadcasting Act 1996, all 64 matches can only be shown live
on free-to-air television in Britain. In previous World Cups, the rights
were owned by the European Broadcasting Union but Kirch outbid the continental
TV conglomerate for both the 2002 and 2006 tournaments.
BT
to break up with Concert
British Telecommunications is planning to break up Concert, its joint
venture with AT&T, before it publishes a prospectus on the demerger of
its mobile phone division early next month, in order to complete the transaction
by mid-autumn. Concert was set up in 1998 to provide voice and internet
services for multinational business customers but has suffered heavy losses.
Talks between Concert's owners have been hampered by the lack of any 'pre-nuptial'
agreements detailing how joint assets and customers should be divided
in the event of separation. In particular, they are not thought to have
agreed on a valuation method for determining how valuable each customer
is and are still collecting data on this.
BT's 50 per cent stake was recently valued at £1.4 billion ($2bn) in the
company's accounts, but Philip Hampton, BT's Finance Director, stressed
that any write-down would be considerably less than this due to the value
salvaged from returning customers and network assets.
Operating losses are estimated to be running at more than £300 million
per quarter due to the downturn in demand from alternative telecoms carriers
and established corporate clients. Concert has also been hit by a series
of bad debts, which make current assessments of its financial strength
difficult.
Streaming at Digi show
Staff cuts at AOL
IBM streaming deal
Interactive soccer boost at Com.hem
ProSiebenSat.1 - mixed 1H Results
NTL/ Telewest restructure debt
Comcast in AT&T side options
Local NZ channel proposed
Khan quits PanAmSat
US Cable Internet Access leaps
News Corp's Latin foray
TV soccer a £billion business
Matav First Half Results
Streaming at Digi show
Digital Media World, a European show for content creation, management and distribution, held at Olympia, London, UK on 13-15 November 2001, has announced that actor/director David Soul will stage his production of Sam Shepard's FOOL FOR LOVE alongside this year's event.
The production incorporates pre-shot and live on-stage video, visual effects, graphics, 3-D imaging, time-lapse footage and digital sound 'to heighten the visceral experience of the presentation.' It is described as one of the first real examples of how streaming media can be effectively applied to live theatre.
Staff cuts at AOL
AOL Time Warner Inc shares fell $3.28 to $39.71 on Monday as rumours circulated that the company was about announce up to 1,000 layoffs at its America Online unit, that management was talking down third quarter results in the face of a poor advertising market, and that the company may bid for AT&T Broadband.
Cutbacks are expected to come this week or next, representing nearly 7 per cent of the 16,000 America Online workforce (around 1 per cent of AOL Time WarnerØs 90,000 employees).
It is reported that the cuts could affect AOL's brand-marketing employees in Dulles, as well as its staff at Netscape Communications in Mountain View, California. An early-buyout program could offer departing employees quick divestment of stock options prior to scheduled maturity in January.
Chief Financial Officer J Michael Kelly had said that the company would be "ruthless" in cost-cutting during the second half of the year following the announcement that AOL's second-quarter revenue rose only 3 per cent.
A revenue target of more than $40 billion - which would entail an increase of 12 to 15 per cent, has now been described as 'at the top end of the range of expected revenue.'
IBM streaming deal
Telestream, a US provider of streaming media infrastructure products, has announced several joint business arrangements with IBM.
These include:
- availability of Telestream's FlipFactory OnDemand streaming media application as a plug-in to the IBM WebSphere Transcoding Publisher (WTP) V4.0;
- FlipFactory certification as an IBM ServerProven(r) business solution;
- Telestream authorisation as an IBM reseller for bundled solutions.
The combined Telestream FlipFactory OnDemand and IBM WebSphere Transcoding Publisher technologies are designed to provide content owners and distribution service providers with a fast, efficient solution for delivery of web content, still images, and streaming video and audio to end users for display on any type of viewing device. This includes pervasive wireless devices such as PDAs and cell phones.
FlipFactory OnDemand enables users to store a single high-quality source file, which is encoded and streamed to users as needed, in the format required for their viewing device. As a plug-in to the IBM WebSphere Transcoding Publisher, this application extends to users the same transcoding functionality for video and audio as is provided by WTP for Web content and still images.
FlipFactory is now available pre-installed on an IBM server with IBM ServerProven certification providing customer assurance.
Interactive soccer boost at Com.hem
Com.hem, the cable television division of Sweden's Telia, is increasing its interactive offerings. The latest move provides Com.hem's 105,000 digital customers (out of a total of 1.3 million connected households) - with the ability to add interactive services such as match tables, statistics and information about other, matches being played simultaneously. This will apply to PPV matches in Com.hem's live Swedish Premier Football League service, launched last spring.
When a Com.hem digital customers orders a Swedish Premier League match they can then simultaneously follow what is happening in all other Premier League matches. By using the remote control the viewer can chose what kind of information and statistics that they want; the result is shown, simultaneously and transparently, on the screen.
By using Matchticker the viewer gets ongoing information about which players have scored, number of shots at goal, off-sides, red and yellow cards, corners etc. Statistics Ticker provides information in real timeabout all simultaneously played matches, while Megaticker builds on Statistics Ticker, adding information about who scored, off-sides, corners, free kicks etc.
"Our intention is to continuously increase the number of interactive services in as many as possible of the programmes we are showing," Henrik Enfors, deputy MD of Com.hem comments. "Therefore it is a pleasure for us to be able to offer tailor-make information for our Premier League customers. After requests from our audience we can now also offer reruns of most matches, at no extra charge for those originally paying for a match."
The current interactive service has been developed by Com.hem in collaboration with Hello Interactive and HEGO.
When introduced earlier this year the Premier League PPV service significantly increased interest in Com.hem's digital services. Com.hem recently saw further confirmation of the general interest in its new football service when a derby between two of Stockholm's leading Premier League teams saw a take-up figurethree times higher than any previous Com.hem PPV event.
"For competition reasons we cannot publish any actual figures, but we are certainly happy with this outcome of our investment in Sweden's Premier League," Ola Kallemur, Head of Information at Com.hem, comments.
Months afer the signing of the deal with the Swedish Football Association Com.hem agreed to share its PPV rights with Viasat, the DTH arm of Modern Times Group. "We are not competing for the same groups of audiences," was a mutually quoted argument from Com.hem and Viasat.
ProSiebenSat.1 - Mixed 1H Results
The decline in advertising is blamed for ProSiebenSat.1's reported 3 per cent decline in 1H sales to DM1.03 billion ($925 million), and a further fall of 2 to 3 per cent is predicted for the second half of the year.
Formed by the merger of ProSieben and Sat.1 in Oct 2000, the Kirch Media-owned company said pre-tax profit was 5 per cent higher than expected at DM89 million but down 20 per cent on last year's 1H result. Unadjusted net income rose 11 per cent on last year to DM52 million.
The Sat.1
unit had hoped to see some growth but sales declined 10 per cent to DM
431 million.
NTL Telewest restructure debt
(Also
See Privilege Pages, Kate Bulkley Viewpoint)
Weekend press reports in the UK say that UK bank JP Morgan Chase is leading
a debt refinancing package for cablecos NTL/Telewest ahead of any merger.
The bank, the largest creditor to the two UK cablecos, is looking at how
to reduce the E17billion ($15.2 billion) of joint corporate bond leverage
held by the two firms - which has depressed share prices, and is seen
as a major factor delaying a merger deal - along with the regulatory hurdles.
NTL and Telewest already co-ordinate on broadband marketing strategies,
and a joint purchasing agreement over digital decoders is expected.
The two companies have a joint 1.5 million digital customers, and a merger
would help them challenge the still supperior BSkyB's 5.5 million digital
customers.
NTL has around $15 billion in long-term debt, while Telewest has reported
net debt of around 4.8 billion pounds ($6.8 billion). Telewest shares
closed up 2.1 per cent at 74-1/2 pence in London, valuing the group at
around 2.1 billion pounds. The stock remains well below peaks of around
5.30 pounds set in April 2000. NTL shares were down 3.6 percent at $8.31
in New York around the time of London's market close -- still well below
a 2001 peak of around $43. The company has a current stock market capitalisation
of around $2.2 billion.
Telewest would have to strike a deal with bondholders and renegotiate
the change of control clause to avoid a hefty bill if the two operations
were to merge, bankers said.
Comcast in AT&T side options
Comcast Corporation has held exploratory talks with AOL Time Warner and other potential rival suitors in its bid to acquire AT&T's cable television business, a move seen as effectively staving off competing bids.
Executives said Comcast and AOL Time Warner have discussed the possibility of a deal that could make it easy for AOL Time Warner to buy the 25 per cent stake in Time Warner Entertainment that AT&T owns, if Comcast wins control of the AT&T cable business. AOL Time Warner has been stalled for months in negotiations to buy the 25 per cent stake directly from AT&T.
In addition, Comcast has also held exploratory talks with the Walt Disney Company, centring on terms for carrying Disney channels over a Comcast-AT&T Broadband network, if Disney stays out of the bidding. Disney is particularly interested in ensuring favourable channel positions for all of its cable networks, including Fox Family, which it recently agreed to acquire from the News Corporation.
Comcast is also reported to have held talks with Microsoft, which invested $1 billion in Comcast in 1997.
Since Comcast made its unsolicited $44.5 billion offer for AT&T Broadband on July 8, Comcast has been forced to wait as AT&T's chairman, C Michael Armstrong, has talked to other media companies including AOL Time Warner, Disney and Microsoft in an effort to drum up a bidding war for AT&T Broadband.
Comcast has yet to hold formal discussions with AT&T because Comcast has refused to sign a confidentiality agreement that AT&T has insisted on.
Local NZ channel proposed
The possibility of setting up a community television station in New Zealand's Oamaru is being explored by a group of locals.
A channel has been allocated and support was being sought from local businesses and community groups, spokesman Mark Jones told the local newspaper.
It is suggested that broadcasts would promote the North Otago area and feature programmes covering community events, news and interviews
Khan quits PanAmSat
Reports yesterday said that R Douglas Kahn, the President and CEO of PanAmSat Corp has left the company. Just a month ago PanAmSat reported sharply reduced earnings for the second quarter and the first half of the year and cut back its earnings estimates for the remainder of 2001.
Kahn has been replaced as President and CEO by Joseph R Wright Jr, the Vice Chairman of Terremark Worldwide Inc, a company that built and operates the NAP (network access point) of the Americas.
Hughes Electronics owns 81 per cent of PanAmSat and it is speculated that this move could pressage a final sale to either News Corp or Echostar - the former being the most likely.
Wright joined Terremark from AmTec Inc, a telecom and Internet services company operating in the United States and the Far East. He was previously Chairman of information technology, Internet and software company GRC International Inc until it was bought by AT&T.
Wright has also been vice chairman of the Washington, DC, consulting firm Jefferson Consulting Group specialising in companies doing business with the federal government, and he has been Vice Chairman and Executive Vice President of chemicals conglomerate W.R. Grace & Co.
US Cable Internet Access leaps
A US National Cable and Telecommunications Association report just published says that high-speed Internet service customers via cable in the US rose by 920,000 during the second quarter.
The increase brings the total number of US cable modem users to more than 5.5 million, about 8.5 percent of the 65 million homes able to receive the service.
The NCTA also said the cable industry added 200,000 new residential telephone customers during its second quarter, bringing the total number of cable telephony subscribers in the US to 1.3 million.
News Corp's Latin foray
News Corp Ltd could gain control of a dominant Latin America satellite television operation if it manages to win control of Hughes Electronics Corp in the US.
In addition to its talks with General Motors Corp to acquire Hughes, News Corp plans to merge its Latin American SKY satellite television company with Hughes' Latin American DirecTV satellite television enterprise.
Latin American companies Televisa and Brazil's Organizacoes Globo SA who currently share control of satellite TV operations in the region with Hughes would see their stakes reduced.
There are three SKY Latin American television operations: SKY Mexico is 60 per cent held by Televisa and SKY Brazil is 54 per cent held by Globo. SKY Latin America's multi-country operation, which operates in countries outside of Mexico and Brazil, is owned 30 per cent each by News Corp, Televisa and Globo, with US-based Liberty Media Corp owning the remaining 10 per cent.
Reports suggest News Corp would not necessarily join its different Sky operations under one holding before merging with DirecTV Latin America, which is 78 per cent owned by Hughes and 22 per cent owned by an investment group that includes Venezuela's Cisneros family.
However, a News Corp-created Sky Latin America Holding formed of Sky Mexico, Sky Multi-country and Sky Brasil would make Televisa and Globo minority shareholders in the new entity.
If SKY and DirecTV in Latin America merged they would dominate the region with almost no satellite television competition and nearly three million subscribers.
Regulators in Mexico and Brazil are expected to oppose the creation of such a dominant regional player. However, minority shareholding in the merged operation by Televisa and Globo, dominant cable operators in their home markets, could eliminate that regulatory obstacle, as would no longer dominate both cable and satellite television businesses in their home countries.
In a separate move, Mexico has licensed several companies to provide satellite services in Mexico - including the Hughes owned PanAmSat de Mexico (Controladora Satelital de Mexico), which is 49 per cent owned by a PanAmSat Corp subsidiary, and 51 per cent owned by a holding company of Alejandro Burillo Azcarraga, the majority owner of the private Mexican investment firm Grupo Pegaso.
Other newly licensed companies include:
- Sistemas Satelitales de Mexico, which is 49 per cent owned by the GE American Communications unit of General Electric and 51 per cent owned by Mexican industrialist Gaston Luken.
- Enlaces Satelitales, an affiliate of Satmex, the Mexican domestic satellite carrier. - - Enlaces Satilatales is controlled by the Mexican industrialist Sergio Autry, with Loral Space and Communications holding a minority stake.
- Telesistema Mexicano, a company owned entirely by Mexico's Group Televisa the largest TV network in Mexico.
TV Soccer a £billion business
Television income is the main contributor in a 13 per cent rise in English soccer revenues to 1.078 billion pounds ($1.53 billion) in the 1999/2000 season, breaking the billion pound revenue barrier to confirm its position as the richest league in the world.
However, spiralling wage and transfer costs meant that the combined pre-tax loss from England's 92 professional clubs more than doubled to 145 million pounds, consultants Deloitte & Touche said in their annual review of football finance.
Television income is set to increase further following the £1.1 billion pound rights deal agreed last year with British Sky Broadcasting as well as other smaller deals which come into effect when the premier league season kicks off this weekend.
Deloitte & Touche forecast the premier league's income would double to around £1.5 billion pounds in the 2002/3 season, one billion pounds more than the other 72 clubs.
Additional TV revenue is likely to be seen from Pay Per View deals, as well as increasing numbers of club TV channels ° Chelsea being the latest addition earlier this month.
Matav First Half Results
Matav, the main Hungarian telecommunications service provider, reported in its financial results for the first half of 2001 that revenue was up 23.1 per cent to 264 billion forints (E1,007 million or $ 905 million) compared to 213.8 billion forints in the first half of 2000.
Mobile segment revenues were to 92.5 billion forints, an increase of 25.4 per cent due to the 71 per cent increase in net subscribers. Fixed line revenues grew by 4.2 per cent to 164.9 billion forints, as higher subscription fees and ISDN, leased lines and data revenue growth offset lower traffic revenues. EBITDA increased by 11.2 per cent to 111.5 billion forints. ISDN sales saw a doubling of connections in the last twelve months.
The Fixed line penetration rate in Matav's service areas has stabilized at 39 per cent, but a nearly 30 per cent increase in monthly subscription fees this February resulted in reduced demand for Matav's basic package at the lower end of the residential market.
OpenTV - 18.2 m stbs deployed
Sofia Digital return path for MHP
Tornado V.92 PCI modem launched
SES 2C in operation
Access holiday for Ausie nets
Mandarin looks south
Minorities boycott possible
No lay-offs for News Corp
Liberty to direct UPC future?
Xbox in short supply
Brazil earth station established
Programmes rated at doodarshan
BBC commercialises web site
New accounting boosts AOL
Residents get hi-tech
UK broadcasters jointly oppose Kirch
HDTV supplies increase
Wireless charge for content
MTV goes broadband
OpenTV - 18.2 m stbs deployed
Open-TV reports that 2.2 million OpenTV-enabled set-top boxes (STB) have been deployed in the second quarter of 2001, giving the company a total of 18.2 million digital set-top boxes (STB) deployed worldwide as of June 30, 2001.
Mickey Kalifa, UK MD of OpenTV told advanced-television that the figures mirrored penetration of the digital cable, digital satellite and digital terrestrial networks.
Deployments in the quarter ended June 30, 2001 totalled 2.2 million units, a 47 percent increase from the more than 1.5 million STB deployments reported by OpenTV for the second quarter of 2000.
Kalifa adds, "The growth is a combination of increased market share and growth in the market. We are increasing our market share partly because we already have a large installed base with players such as EchoStar, DirecTV and Sky who have a fast rate of growth, but we are also winning new operators. We expect to sign up several new operators each quarter over the coming year, and we would hope that at the very least our growth will mirror that of the growth in digital TV, maintaining our share of the market. Even our worst case projections for growth over the next five years look very positive."
Sales are truly global, with China the latest addition this year. As of June 30, 2001, seven OpenTV network operator customers have each deployed in excess of 500,000 OpenTV-enabled set-top boxes. Of these, four have each deployed in excess of 1 million OpenTV-enabled set-top boxes. It is believed that OpenTV has extended its lead in iTV technology deployments with Canal+'s Mediahighway the nearest rival at some 4 million boxes deployed, predominantly on its own systems, Liberate put at around 1.5 million, and Microsoft, theoretically a threat but with TV Cabo in Portugal its only deployment to date.
Despite its name, OpenTV is a proprietary system, establishing something of a de-facto standard, but Kalifa says that the company will adopt any internationally recognised iTV standards "as and when they are established," including MHP compliance if that were considered appropriate. "If thee is a better technology available to us, then we would move to open systems," says Kalifa - but the company clearly doesn't see that as likely in the near term.
Sofia Digital return path for MHP
Sofia Digital has introduced a chat for digital television system which complies with the MHP standard. The television channel can keep a chat frequency open continuously.
Viewers are able to simultaneously participate in conversations on television programmes while watching them. The chat service can also be removed from the screen so that only the television program can be seen.
Sofia Digital's chat uses the MHP 1.0.1 standard. Users access via their remote controls and the return channels of their Set-Top Boxes to chat. Alternatively, viewers are able to chat using their mobile phones.
Sofia Digital says it is also going to deliver the world's first superteletext, to be taken into regular use on the Finnish terrestrial digital television channels. The terrestrial DVB MHP broadcasts will begin in Finland on 27 August 2001.
Sofia Digital's superteletext, Sofia ARENA, will be introduced to the world at the IFA 2001 fair in Berlin, along with the electric Programme guide, Sofia ACCESS.
Tornado V.92 PCI modem launched
Tornado, the retail division of Allied Data Technologies bv in Holland has introduced a new Tornado V.92 PCI modem based on the new V.92 technology. It is available in a retail-version, a white-label solution and an OEM solution, which can be customised.
Features of the V.92 technology include QuickConnect, Modem-on-Hold and PCM Upstream.
From August 1st, 2001Tornado also becomes a new sales division within Allied Data Technologies bv, focused on distribution and retail. Alwin Wolff has been appointed Sales Manager Distribution andJos Kievit as Account Manager Export.
Wolf adds, "Demand for V.92 modems will increase rapidly once the ISPs have upgraded their network. Several ISPs in the Netherlands and Belgium are already working on this and it is expected they will have these services online just before Christmas."
SES 2C in operation
Luxembourg-based Societe Europeenne des Satellites SA has announced that its ASTRA 2C satellite is in service at the CompanyØs orbital position of 19.2’ East.
The 12th spacecraft in the ASTRA series features up to 32 Ku-band transponders in the frequency ranges 10.70 to 11.20 GHz and 11.70 to 12.20 GHz, powered by 105 Watt Travelling Wave Tube Amplifiers (TWTAs). The flexible payload design enables SES to select from a total of 56 possible channels, all operating within SES' satellite back-up scheme.
ASTRA 2C, a BSS 601 HP (High Power) type spacecraft, was built by Boeing Satellite Systems and has a design life of 15 years. The satellite was launched into space on June 16th, 2001, from the Cosmodrome of Baikonur in Kazakhstan on board a Russian-built Proton booster with launch services provided by ILS (International Launch Services). This was the fifth successful ASTRA launch on Proton and number 12 in an unparalleled sequence of 12 successful ASTRA launches.
SES has two further ASTRA launches confirmed: ASTRA 1K is scheduled to be launched in Q2 2002 on a Proton launch vehicle, and ASTRA 3A is also due to be launched in Q2 2002 on an Ariane rocket.
Access holiday for Ausie nets
The Australian government may give pay TV providers an "access holiday" from being obliged to open up their networks to competitors, despite a court ruling that upheld attempts by rivals to use the incumbents' systems.
Earlier this week Australia's largest pay TV platform, Foxtel, was denied leave to appeal against a court ruling allowing Network Seven to access its analogue pay TV network for its C7 sports channel. Seven has been supported by the influential Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
But Foxtel said the ruling would hinder its plans to spend $250 million to digitise its network because competitors would benefit from its investment. Communications minister Richard Alston commented after the court's decision that he had "sympathy" for Foxtel's decision, adding "I do think there is need for greater certainty before people embark on substantial infrastructure investment."
An access holiday was one option under consideration, but he conceded that this would give Foxtel a "first mover advantage" that "might not be the best outcome."
Seven immediately blasted Alston's remarks, saying they flew against the government's undertakings, while the ACCC said Foxtel had exaggerated the impact of access openings because of the increase in capacity offered by digital.
Foxtel, which has around 740,000 subscribers, did not get any sympathy from fellow pay TV provider Cable & Wireless Optus, which has 225,000 customers and is currently running an interactivity trial in Sydney to 300 homes.
Adrian Chamberlain, who oversees Optus' pay TV operations said an access holiday was not necessary to kickstart digital boxes being rolled out. "You need lots and lots of content to make interactive TV work, so I don't understand why Foxtel thinks it is so important to deny people access. You would think they would have the opposite desire."
Mandarin looks south
Hong Kong terrestrial leader Television Broadcasts Ltd plans to beam a Mandarin-language channel aimed at mainland China to overseas Chinese living in Singapore and Malaysia to boost its profitability.
TVB8 is an information and entertainment channel that relies on a mix of advertising and subscriptions for income. There are nearly 30 million potential viewers of Chinese programming in Asia, with the bulk of them living in Malaysia and Singapore. Although TVB is the best-known Chinese-language programme maker in the world, the company is concerned that it is losing ground to Phoenix Satellite TV's channels, a service partly-owned by News Corp.
Although TVB is nominally a Chinese company since Beijing resumed sovereignty in 1997 from London, it is deemed to be a foreign broadcaster. The company is concerned that changes to China's regulations being mooted by regulators will force overseas channels beaming into China to be routed through Chinese domestic satellites and pay a carriage fee of $400,000.
TVB plans to start showing TVB8 on Malaysia's sole direct to home platform Astro, and the monopoly Singapore Cable Vision from October. The move will coincide with a plan to cut the amount of programme syndication from the current 60 per cent of the total sales, to 40 per cent, after a decision that returns from sharing advertising time with the operator is always going to be limited by the amount of advertising time permitted in markets which is mostly 90 seconds.
Minorities boycott possible
US broadcast networks have been threatened with a boycott by civil rights group The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, which would target one of the networks and their advertisers if minority representation does not improve.
Regulators are to consider relaxation of ownership limits on broadcast networks this year, and will be looking at the effects on diversity in broadcasting, hence it has become a significant issue. The big four networks - CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox - said in 1999 that they would improve diversity, but the NAACP said on Wednesday 15/8 that they have moved at a "snail's pace" to improve.
An increase is sought in the number of non-white actors and actresses appearing, particularly in prime-time roles.
Fox says minority actors and television writers increased from last season and NBC said minority representation in its upcoming roster of shows is up 12 per cent. ABC says minority characters are up 40 per cent from year ago. Disney's ABC network had been specifically criticised for not moving quickly enough in hiring minorities.
The NAACP is to monitor the 2001-2002 programming season before deciding whether to organise a boycott.
No lay-offs for News Corp
News Corp says it will not need to resort to lay-offs to cope with the current advertising slump. The company has had a hiring freeze since October, resulting in 1,000 jobs going through leavers and the 300 staff lost through the closure of its Fox internet division.
In contrast, AOL Time Warner expects to cut about 1,000 jobs, and Walt Disney has cut over 4,000 jobs since March.
Peter Chernin, News Corp chief operating officer, in an interview with the Financial Times, said while the advertising market remains weak, he believes that the worst is over. "It has firmed up a little bit in the last two months or so," he said. "Overall, advertising remains a challenge but our operating performance has been strong."
News Corp was set to report fourth-quarter earnings yesterday Thursday 16/8, with analyst predictions that pre-tax profits for the quarter could fall by about 14 per cent to $200 million.
Liberty to direct UPC future?
Shares in cableco United Pan-Europe Communications fell nearly 16 per cent to E1 in the wake of Chairman Mark Schneider's resignation on Tuesday 14/8. (see earlier report, Wednesday 14/8 news archive)
Significant restructuring is now expected under any new management. One person tipped to succeed Schneider is Mike Fries, Chairman of the UPC supervisory board and President of UPC's US parent United GlobalCom, is one of the first to have been tipped as a replacement.
Fries works closely with John Malone's Liberty Media, which lent UPC $1bn in May, gaining a strong position of influence, enabling future control UGC. Charlie Bracken, UPC chief financial officer, was reported as saying, "There are a lot of constructive discussions going on," confirming a strengthening of ties to Liberty.
Dob Bennett, Liberty's president and chief executive, said UPC and its parent company United Globalcom were suffering from a lack of confidence among investors. "They have generally been meeting their numbers and have been performing to expectation. Unfortunately we're dealing with a hugely sceptical financial market. We have been working with UGC and UPC to see whether there are ways of improving their balance sheet position."
UPC continues to deconsolidate Priority Telecom, its business telephony unit, and its media division, including Chello, the broadband internet service. These moves would close a E350 million to E850 million funding gap, with a public listing within a year raising some E400m to E800m.
We are now likely to see further unravelling of Europe's biggest cableco, with further sell offs of parts of the business, including cable franchises. Whether Malone will be looking at the company share price, which has plummeted to E1 from more than E80, and opt to control that operation - or sit outside and buy up just the more profitable parts remains to be seen.
Bennett was speaking as Liberty, having just broken away from AT&T last Friday, reported a $2.1billion loss for the second quarter of the year. This compares with a $267million profit for the same period of the previous year.
Bennett pointed out that as part of the separation from AT&T the teleco had paid Liberty $600m in cash, plus, as a separate company, Liberty would be freed from some regulatory and administrative restrictions imposed on AT&T.
Liberty estimates that its portfolio of public shareholdings, based on closing share prices on Monday, was about $30.7 billion. Its largest holding remains AOL Time Warner, which was valued at $7.4 billion.
Xbox in short supply
A design fault with the Microsoft Xbox games console's motherboard could result in a supply shortage at launch on November 8 according to brokers Thomas Weisel Partners.
It has been suggested that a design fault in the Intel motherboard caused a three-week manufacturing delay that could take "a weekend to fix or six weeks," to fix.
No US launch delay is expected, but Microsoft may not have the 600,000 to 800,000 boxes promised. A target of 1m to 1.5m machines was to have been shipped by January 31.
Microsoft is expected to lose between $100 and $150 per unit sold, recouping its losses through software sales, so, ironically, the delay will save the company money.
Brazil earth station established
Loral Space and Communications subsidiary Loral Skynet do Brasil which owns and operates the Estrela do Sul 1 satellite, has established an earth station in Rio de Janeiro for telemetry, tracking and control of the spacecraft.
The earth station has a 7.6-meter antenna that has been tested with Brasil 1(T) at 63‚W, which was launched in 1985 and will be replaced in that slot by Estrela do Sul. The new satellite is expected to go into service in Q4 next year.
The Estrela do Sul satellite will provide Ku-band coverage throughout Brazil, most of North and South America and the North Atlantic. The new satellite will join Loral Skynet, Satmex, Europe*Star and Stellat as a member of the Loral Global Alliance.
Programmes rated at doodarshan
Indian national broadcaster Doordarshan has introduced television rating points (TRP) to decide each programme's fate.
In its latest rate card it is stated that 'Programmes rating low on the TAM (Television Audience Measurement) will be immediately removed or shifted from prime time.' A programme will be allotted only for 26 episodes, and only those which have a good TRP in that slot, will be given an extension.
The move is in line with the practice of private television channels which pull programmes with low TRPs. A basic benchmark for TRP ratings includes six TRPs and above for prime time; between three and six TRPs for mid-prime time, and programmes below three points will be telecast after 11 pm until 11 am.
BBC commercialises web site
A £1 million revamp of UK pubcaster the BBC's commercial internet operation -Beeb.com - is planned to create single portal for all of BBC Worldwide's programme brands.
Beeb.com will be relaunched with a commercially-orientated design, with cross-selling of merchandise, spin-off books and other products across individual programme sites. A registration procedure will provide users with shopping-list facilities.
New accounting boosts AOL
AOL Time Warner Inc's latest quarterly filing with regulators notes that new accounting rules about amortisation and goodwill will increase its annual net income by about $5.9 billion.
The new accounting rule, which went into effect July 1, calls for companies to recognise the value of assets at the price they were acquired, at least initially. The new rules enable companies to avoid large goodwill charges unless the fair value of the acquired assets is less than its carrying value on the company's books.
As part of a process to evaluate certain intangible assets, AOL Time Warner said it could see an additional increase of after-tax net income by $600 million to $900 million.
Residents get hi-tech
Telekom Austria Group is to offer some 200 residents of the Vienna 'Gasometer' buildings the triple play of telephone, broadband internet access and pay-TV via a single multimedia access line.
In co-operation with its subsidiary company Datakom Austria, Telekom Austria has set up the entire broadband telecommunications infrastructure in both the entertainment centre as well as in the shopping mall area, which extends over all the Gasometers on several levels.
UK broadcasters jointly oppose Kirch
UK terrestrial broadcasters, the BBC and ITV, have reacted strongly to complaints to competition authorities by Germany's Leo Kirch that they are negotiating as a cartel for the rights to next year's World Cup football.
ITV's director of legal and business affairs, Simon Johnson, dismissed the claims as "ridiculous". He said he was "surprised" the Kirch subsidiary, Prisma, which owns the World Cup rights, had taken the step of writing to the office of fair trading to demand an inquiry into the negotiations. "Kirch is sitting on a very substantial offer for the World Cup from ITV and the BBC," he added.
In April, ITV and the BBC made Kirch an offer, which is understood to be worth more than £50million. However, Prisma, which paid £821million for all European TV rights to next year's World Cup, has demanded £171million.
The BBC and ITV have bid jointly since 1966, which they say benefits the viewers because all matches are shown live and viewers are offered a non-soccer alternative programme on the channels not screening the match.
HDTV supplies increase
Samsung Electronics of South Korea has introduced five new HDTVs this week. The company has introduced two new 32-inch HDTVs and five 29, 34, and 36-inch HDTVs. "Our HDTVs come with 2.07 million pixels with resolution of 1920 X 1080, and are equipped with sub-woofer speakers. We plan to introduce cheaper HDTVs for the faster growth of the HDTV market," Managing Director Baik Bong-ju of Samsung Electronics told local newspapers in S. Korea.
Daewoo Electronics also plans to introduce new HDTVs known as SUMMUS next week says the report. SUMMUS TVs will come with 36-inch screens and will be equipped with DVDs.
"We have sold 60 million braun-tube type HDTVs since we first introduced them in August, last year," said a Daewoo Electronics spokesperson. It is reported that 32-inch SUMMUS, which were priced at 3.2 to 3.3 million last year, are now sold for 2.7 million in Internet shopping malls and discount stores.
LG Electronics plans to shift focus from PDP TVs to 29 and 32-inch barun tube HDTVs. In fact, the company plans to introduce 29 and 32-inch HDTVs during the second half of this year, which come with set-top boxes.
"We expect the HDTV market to grow by 20 to 30 per cent year-on-year," said Manager, Park Kun-chun of Samsung Electronics.
HDTVs are classified into three types, depending on their display modules, namely PDP, projection and HDTV. The PDP TVs use plasma panels while projection HDTVs can display objects on a 50- to 60-inch screens, but are not as bright and clear as normal TVs and are priced between W7 million to W10 million, which is more expensive than other HDTVs. Consequently, market experts forecast that consumers will prefer HDTVs, which use the normal braun tube for clearer viewing.
Wireless charge for content
Ovum Research predicts that it is companies that charge for content which will succeed in the wireless Internet market.
Mobile service providers will be able to share content revenues with content providers, and will also have secondary revenues from transactions and wireless marketing.
Those service providers that do not charge for content they have paid to acquire will find themselves relying on revenues from transactions, wireless marketing, and portal tenancy fees. Ovum believes, however, that such revenues will not be enough to sustain a business model.
Japanese firm DoCoMo is cited as an example of a wireless company successfully charging for content.
Ovum advises wireless firms to offer a mixture of free and paid content, so that end-users will appreciate the value of the paid content. Valuable content that could be charged for includes urgent information such as stock quotes and information with a strong emotional or psychological pull such as horoscopes.
MTV
goes broadband
MTV is to launch its first broadband channel, to be known as MTV Live.
It will be produced by MTV's European operation, using the broadcaster's
library of around 15,000 performances by various acts.
The first carrier to accept the channel is Europe Online, a satellite-based
Internet service provider (ISP) which supplies Europe with a 2Mbps Internet
service over the Astra series of satellites.
MTV Live contains two distinct streams - the video and audio stream, and
the interactive channel.
WEEKEND NEWS FRI 17-MON 20 AUGUST 2001
Kirch in more soccer upset
Boro FC asserts TV rights
Swede programmer quits
Interactive Video from AOL
Local ad insertion on MTV
Licence dispute for Thai TV
Russia splits programming and distribution
ESPN goes Xtreme broadband
News Corp results down, DirecTV bid on
Movie broadband get majors
Liberty Media Long-Term Buy
Microsoft may block AOL/AT&T
Kirch in more soccer upset
In addition to its world cup soccer TV wrangles in the UK, German media conglomerate KirchGroup now faces a defeat on the TV soccer field back in Germany.
In a bid to promote Premiere World's digital pay TV bouquet, in which Germany's top soccer league can be seen live on a pay per view basis, the free to air offering at Kirch's commercial TV channel Sat.1 was moved from late afternoon, parallel with the live games, to a prime time evening slot. As a result, the viewer base collapsed and advertising clients were reported to have reacted immediately. With a drop of 1.7 million viewers the channel faced losses in sponsorship revenues alone of some 60 per cent, said a news report.
However, Sat.1 officials deny an immediate impact on advertising revenues saying that the program slot will be moved again - most likely returning to the afternoon.
Even more serious for Kirch, sources close to Premiere World say the beneficial subscriber impact on the bouquet was not as strong as had been hoped. Exclusive PPV soccer in the afternoon only attracted about 50,000 new subscribers - not including cancellation of contracts. In June, prior to the launch of the new soccer strategy, Premiere World faced losses of 30,000 subscribers.
'Fluctuation is within the normal range,' was the only official comment from Premiere World, which does not release hard figures. Co-shareholder BskyB, which has 24.5 per cent of Kirch Pay TV, the parent of Premiere World, said during the presentation of the company's annual results in late July that it was considering quitting the venture with Kirch. 'The only good thing about the deal is the option to be able to step out of it at any time,' BSkyB boss Tony Ball was quoted as saying.
Boro FC asserts TV rights
On Monday (August 20) UK cableco NTL launches - Boro TV Extra TV channel - and following the match against Arsenal, it will show every Premiership soccer game played by Middlesbrough FC this season, using new TV rights regulations.
Boro TV, the first club-dedicated channel in the UK is now first to advantage of new rules governing ownership of the TV rights to Premiership games.
From the start of this season the rights to Premiership match footage revert to the football clubs themselves 48 hours after the final whistle on a Saturday, and at midnight on the same day for mid-week games.
Middlesbrough FC has been able to assign the broadcast rights to Boro TV - giving Boro fans every home and away game in its entirety, plus a variety of special programmes, phone-ins with players and the latest club news.
Commentator Alastair Brownlee and presenter Alison Douglas will front the service. Peter Wilcock, founder of Boro TV and now Managing Director of NTL in the North East said, "Boro fans are in the enviable position of already having a TV channel dedicated to their team so the means of broadcasting all the matches is already in place (enabling) showing all of Boro's games as soon as the tight broadcast regulations were relaxed."
Boro TV Extra is available for a monthly fee of £3.99, and will be free for the first six weeks of the season. The new channel operates from 7pm to 1am, from Monday to Friday (extending to 2am on match nights) and, on Saturdays, from 9am to 12.30pm.
Swede programmer quits
Tony Mendes, one of Scandinavia's most high-profile programme buyers, has quit his post as Swedish TV4's head of acquisitions.
Mendes, who has held his present position since 1991, does not have a new job to go to. "I feel a need for new challenges", he comments. "I am about to explore interesting possibilities to continue my professional life. I have received several offers for new jobs, but my decision to leave TV4 is independent of these offers."
Angolan born Mendes does not see a return to SVT - where he began his acquisition career as an assistant to the legendary head of documentary acquisitions Frank Hirschfeldt in the early Eighties - as an alternative. Nor does he foresee an international carreer, "But I want to stay in the media business. Today there are enough TV-related businesses and companies", he comments.
"Tony Mendes has done an outstanding job, giving the Swedish TV viewers a lot of important television experiences, from Beverly Hills to The X-files and Ally McBeal," Jan Scherman, Director of Programming at TV4, comments. "And he has made TV4 an important player in the relations with major companies like Fox, Disney, CBS, BBC, Granada and many more."
During his ten years as head of acquisitions at TV4 Mendes has been involved in output deals with distributors like Granada and Fox, the latter giving TV4 the rights to a number of commercial successes such as The X-Files, NY PD Blues, and Ally McBeal.
Many of the major TV4 acquisitions, like the Fox package, have been organised in close cooperation with the station's Scandinavian private sisters, Danish and Norwegian TV2.
The recruitment process of a successor to Mendes has already begun. Mendes will leave TV4 at the end of this month, but has agreed to assist in helping to find a suitable successor.
* Norwegian public service broadcaster NRK has recently seen a change at the top of its acquisition organisation. Aake Kaellqvist, who was head of SVT International then, shortly afterwards, appointed head of drama acquisitions at NRK, has recently been appointed head of the newly constructed NRK Acquisition department, in charge of all of NRK fiction, movie and documentary acquisitions.
Interactive Video from AOL
AOL Time Warner Inc is creating an Interactive Video division which combines services from AOL Time Warner's Internet, cable, television, film and publishing divisions to offer video-on-demand subscription packages, cable IP telephony services and rolling out other services starting as early as September.
"The development of what I'll call a mass market service for interactive video - that's really what the (AOL/Time Warner) merger is about," AOL Time Warner Chief Executive Gerald Levin told The New York Times.
Joseph Collins, the current Chief Executive at Time Warner Cable, will be Chairman of the new interactive video division. Glenn Britt, currently President of Time Warner Cable, will replace Collins as Chief Executive.
The various parts of Time Warner will enable the provision of additional, alternate information on programmes and their participants to viewers. And familiarity with such a system by users is intended to lead on to interactive advertising, sending viewers direct to additional information and the ability to buy products seen on TV - potentially allowing the cableco to charge for each contact.
Video on demand is seen as one of the early contributors to interactive TV services, with forecasts of 2.5 million and 3 million video-on-demand subscribers in the US by the year end, up from 1 million a year earlier.
AOL Time Warner has begun testing video-on-demand in three states and will start rolling out services throughout the United States later this year and into next, Levin said.
AOL launches an enhanced version of its AOLTV service this year, allowing consumers to use AOL interactive features while watching TV. AOL Time Warner and Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd are currently developing a new version of AOLTV's set-top boxes. Services have started in Austin, Texas; Tampa, Florida; and Honolulu, Hawaii. AOL Time Warner cable programmer HBO is testing subscription video-on-demand in Columbia, South Carolina.
Local ad insertion on MTV
India's Hinduja-owned INCablenet is negotiating with MTV India to agree local advert avails (LAAs) on the music channel carried by its cable network.
INCablenet President Rajiv Vyas told local press, "We are close to signing the deal with MTV. The details are being worked out."
The basis is that MTV would permit INCablenet to run local adverts from its head-ends - using automatic ad insertion - for an agreed time and INCablenet would provide prime band carriage of the music channel on its network.
INCablenet is seeking similar agreements with Discovery Communications and Turner India.
The use of local ad-avails would be a new development in the Indian Pay-TV market where the channels and operators often have a 'difficult' relationship.
Licence dispute for Thai TV
A new Thai TV station due to launch next month, World Star TV, is receiving objections to using a local Pay-TV licence for a national free-to-air service.
The licence was transferred in October 1999 after World Star settled 20 million baht debts owed by Thai Star TV of the Wattachak Group to the Thai Public Relations department. World Star also agreed to pay the licence fee of around 400 million baht for the concession, which expires on May 30, 2021.
One objector, Jumpol Rodkhamdee, Dean of Chulalongkorn University's Mass Communications Faculty and a member of the National Broadcasting Commission's selection committee, was reported in the local press as saying, "I don't understand why the PRD granted the licence to World Star TV. It clearly breached the law in allowing a pay TV station to transform itself into a free-to-air TV station."
Under the new National Broadcasting Act, which took effect on March 8, 2000, all new frequencies must be allocated by the yet-to-be-established National Broadcasting Commission.
Suchat Suchatvejapoom, the department Director-General, said that there was nothing illegal or irregular in the decision to allow World Star TV Co to operate - though his suggestions that this was not a new licence, but just a company name change and new management team were contradicted by World Star TV President Jakrapob Penkair who said his company had nothing to do with Thai Star TV.
World Star TV, which has been broadcasting on a trial basis since December 3, 2000, is forecast to run a total of 16 channels, a least one of which will be fully commercial-free TV. Subscribers will pay to install an antenna but not have any monthly fee to pay. Shin Satellite Plc plans to lease a transponder to World Star TV to broadcast its programmes throughout the country.
The current licence only permits broadcasting subscribers in greater Bangkok, and the Post and Telegraph Department, which would need to approve any extension of coverage says approval can now only be given by planned National Broadcasting Commission.
Russia splits programming and distribution
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree ordering that the All-Russian State Television and Radio Co be split into two parts, one in charge of programming, the other in overseeing transmissions for state and private broadcasters.
A state-owned non-stock company called the Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Network, or RTRS, will be created to handle transmissions. RTRS will incorporate the Ostankino television broadcasting center, the relay communications lines previously controlled by the Communications Ministry, and about 100 regional transmission centres with about 15,000 transmitters and satellite uplink stations around the country.
Most of these assets were part of VGTRK, a conglomerate of state-owned media which is the parent company of RTR and other state television and radio stations.
RTRS will report to the Press Ministry. Press Minister Mikhail Lesin said in December that $350 million to $400 million was needed to replace outdated equipment to prevent its collapse within a few years.
According to the decree signed Monday 13/8, the 2002 federal budget must include subsidies ( worth $35 million to $45 million) to RTRS for delivering national television and radio broadcasts to towns of fewer than 200,000 people.
The decree gives the cabinet three months to draw up RTRS' charter, also aims to effectively nationalise all parts of the transmission systems.
ESPN goes Xtreme broadband
On Friday 17/8 the ESPN Broadband Internet service, in partnership with Comcast Corp, began providing broadband coverage of the extreme sports X Games to Philadelphia subscribers with cable modems.
In addition to sports highlights, viewers/users get access to news clips, statistics, standings and background information. Aerocast Inc is to provide streaming services for the content, which is cached locally in Philadelphia, free of charge, according to reports.
News Corp results down, DirecTV bid on
News Corp Ltd quarterly results reported on Thursday 16/8 were down, as expected, in the face of poorer results at Fox television in the face of an advertising slump.
Operating revenues fell 11.6 per cent in the quarter, to $3.44 billion from $3.9 billion. Including one-off items, such as the sale of its share in the Golf Channel, News Corp reported a net loss of $265 million compared to the previous year period which showed a net profit of $71 million. The company's full-year Ebitda was $1.67 billion, compared to a forecast range of $1.65 billion to $1.7 billion.
The television unit, which includes the Fox network and television stations, saw its operating income fall to $185 million in the fourth quarter from $241 million a year earlier, hit by the advertising slump and higher sports programming costs.
Film, including 20th Century Fox, saw reduced operating loss, down to $4 million from $53 million a year ago.
The company's cable unit, which includes Fox Sports, Fox News and the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, reported an operating loss of $1 million, against a year-earlier profit of $1 million.
Newspapers saw a 25 percent decline in operating income, to $121 million.
* News Corp Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch said on Thursday its bid for General Motors Corp's satellite television unit offered a healthy premium for shareholders saying, "Our deal offers a healthy premium and synergies that no other company can match." This is clearly a reference to rival bidder EchoStar Communications Corp, whose synergies had been described by some analysts as superior to the News Corp offer.
EchoStar had bid $28 billion in stock to buy Hughes, a 4 percent premium over Hughes current market value. Up to $35 billion in cost savings and $20 billion in incremental revenue through 2005 was forecast.
Although no figures are public, some suggestions are that News Corp is offering Hughes 20 per cent over its share price - but it would depend on what BSkyB assets are included and how they are valued.
EchoStar Chief Executive Charlie Ergen's agenda could simply be stalling negotiations while continuing to take away market share from DirecTV say some commentators.
Murdoch told reporters that News Corp has completed its due diligence and said,"We hope it won't take too much longer," to announce a deal.
Movie broadband get majors
An on-demand broadband Internet movie service is being created by a joint venture of five of Hollywood's major movie studios.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc, Paramount Pictures (a unit of Viacom Inc), Sony Pictures Entertainment, Vivendi Universal's Universal Studios and Warner Bros., a unit of AOL Time Warner Inc annouced (16/8) that the service will primarily be an open-access IP-based system, although other means of delivery will be explored after the launch. All movies will be supplied on a non-exclusive basis.
Liberty Media Long-Term Buy
Following Liberty Media Corp's break away from AT&T in the US, J.P. Morgan initiated coverage of the company (16/8) with a 'long term buy' rating and a price target of $20 a share.
Morgan said it believes that management should continue to deliver stellar long-term returns.
Microsoft
may block AOL/AT&T
The sale of AT&T Corp's cable television unit attracted all the usual
cable giants, but the list of suitors also includes Microsoft Corp. Reuters
reports that some analysts say the move is aimed at thwarting any attempt
by rival AOL Time Warner Inc to expand its cable empire.
Although Microsoft isn't thought to be interested in running a cable network,
its $5 billion investment in AT&T Broadband two years ago, would help
Microsoft to block any deal with AOL. Microsoft also reported cash and
short-term securities of $31 billion at the end of June - which enables
additional clout if required.
Digital cable networks don't just carry television, but as high-speed
Internet links they will deliver movies on demand, enable faster Web surfing
and downloading of software including video games. Plus Microsoft has
its own set top box software which it would no doubt like to see deployed
'in every home.' The AT&T investment was intended to result in deployment
of 7.5 million Microsoft enabled interactive TV set-top boxes for over
half of AT&T broadband's 13 million subscribers - but AT&T subsequently
asked for a lower functionality option.
Comcast Corp's $40 billion unsolicited bid for AT&T has been followed
by interest from Cox Communications, Walt Disney Co and AOL. But it is
AOL's position as the leading Internet access provider and second-biggest
cable television company in the US that posses the most threat as it would
give AOL Time Warner an almost unassailable position as leading cable
internet and interactive TV provider - if US regulators allowed it to
purchase AT&T Broadband.